Cover Use vs Real Life

May 15, 2018

John Buol Guest Article , , , 2 Comments

From John P Correia

I was watching a video of someone shooting IDPA yesterday, and it struck me that they demand use of cover. And my first thought was that I almost NEVER see shooters using cover in real gunfights.

And then I went back and looked through a couple of months of videos. And the reality is, I do occasionally see the use of cover/concealment in defensive gunfights. Not OFTEN, but not almost never. A majority of gunfights just don’t provide any options for cover, and most people move a step or three and then go to work with their roscoe.

I ain’t nobody in any competitive shooting organization, but if I were, I would consider whether all shooting MUST be done behind cover. If there was one thing I would change, it’s the amount of time I see people have to lean into weird stances as they shoot to keep their feet in bounds and get their hits. THAT, I have never seen in a gunfight. Some squatting, some minor leaning, but not anything like what I see time and again in competition videos.

If an organization really wanted to mimic real-life gunfighting, they would all but eliminate reloads as parts of their CoF. (I know they won’t because it adds a skill metric and a differentiating factor among competitors, but still) Maybe throw an intentionally staged malf in there once in awhile instead. Or allow dropping of partial mags and recognize that movement from one place to another actually stands in for “first gunfight is over, now staging for second scenario as soon as you get more bees in the blaster.”

Just some random thoughts.

I am only an occasional competitive shooter who does it for fun and for grins & giggles with friends, so please don’t take what I am saying as a call out of any shooting org or yelling at gamers to get off my lawn or any of that silliness. Their game, their rules!

John Correia on Training Standards

February 20, 2018

John Buol Shooting , 1 Comment

John Correia
ASP (Active Self Protection)

It continues to boggle my mind that a small segment of the defensive training world insists that timers are useless in defensive firearms training.

Honestly, that’s like saying “Grades are useless in measuring student’s learning.” This showcases a gross misunderstanding of what grades ARE. They don’t measure. They acknowledge and demonstrate an objective standard of achievement, which can then be correlated into other areas to prepare a student to achieve “in the real world.”

It’s like looking at racing and saying, “Qualifying laps are bogus and don’t reflect how races will go, so get rid of them because they don’t help you in the race.” That’s not what qualifying laps are. Qualifying shows your raw ability with your equipment to see what your best is, so that you can be ranked with your peers as the race starts. It is an acknowledgment of your demonstrated maximum ability in ideal conditions, which tends to correlate to success on race day.

There IS a timer in your gunfight. There’s no beep, but there IS a timer. Make no mistake, I have seen gunfights won by a tenth and lost by a tenth.

No one is saying “if you’re X fast on the timer, you’ll win.” We’re saying, “This objective standard showcases a certain level of proficiency with this critical task which will give you maximum advantage in a defensive shooting.”

Failing to recognize that is…puzzling.

Observations From 5,000 Gunfights

January 5, 2017

John Buol Shooting, TacticalPractical , , 3 Comments

From John P Correia

https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=606334649570351&id=100005814637523

I’ve watched about 5,000 gunfights at this point, and the patterns that emerge are pretty clear. Some thoughts you might want to consider that I don’t think that the training community really wants to hear:
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